Did you know that the highest prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is found in Canada? According to the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, Canada has a prevalence of this syndrome at 18% vs 11% globally . At our Toronto Naturopathic clinic, we talked to Greystones Health clinic director and naturopathic Dr. Steyr who has some insight into this condition and how he helps out individuals who are experiencing this. This condition can affect an individual’s everyday life and can cause anxiety disorders and depression as well as symptoms of fatigue in up to 54% of those with IBS (https://cdhf.ca/digestive-disorders/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/statistics/).
We spoke to Dr. Steyr who gave us some information on those who suffer from IBS and some common mistakes that people make:
“A lot of people suffer from IBS, SIBO or small bacterial overgrowth. What they do is they find foods that don’t agree with them. They avoid it or they even know to try and kill some bacteria or fungus that’s over growing in their body. The problem with this is that you can’t just kill. It’s like gardening where you kill the weeds, leave your soil blank. The weeds are going to come right back in.”
We then asked Dr. Steyr about his process for helping his patients out with this condition and how this process is more efficient:
“So we have a three phase process. You kill the weeds, you transition to know what foods react badly with you. But the most important part is regrowing a healthy microbiome in the gut. So kill, transition and regrow. If you don’t do these three steps your IBS will come back time and time again.”
So if you think that you are suffering from IBS, our naturopathic doctors at Greystones Health would be happy to help you out and find a healthy lifestyle that works for you.